Jesus and Democracy according to Meister Eckhart

We find ourselves these days in a time of soulful struggle over democracy, whether in France, Italy, Hungary or other places. 

“Thousands Take To The Streets In France To Protest Electoral Gains Made By The Far-Right.” Video by India Today.

And certainly in a MAGA America and its UnSupreme Court eager to make kings of presidents and snatch decision-making about the environment from scientists—climate change and Mother Earth be damned—and give it to corporate powers. 

We also find silliness arising in the state of Louisiana, where so-called educators are demanding that the Ten Commandments be posted on walls of all public school classrooms from kindergarten through graduate school. 

In Oklahoma, we learn that the Bible is to be on the curriculum. As if the separation between church and state did not exist in our constitution.

One week ago today, I finished a 7-week class on Meister Eckhart and Compassion with the Shift Network. While Eckhart was our primary guide for the class, he was not an exclusive guide. We also invoked scientists (and the newly rediscovered emphasis on interdependence, since that is key to all compassion) and feminist writers like Adrienne Rich and M.C. Richards and others, and how all religions of the world celebrate our god-like capacities for compassion.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern models true compassion when she visits members of the Muslim community at the Phillipstown Community Centre on Saturday 16 March 2019, less than 24 hours after a terror attack to two mosques left 50 people dead and dozens seriously injured in Christchurch. Photo by Kirk Hargreaves. Wikipedia.

For the last class, I talked about “Educating For Compassion,” and led people through two of Eckhart’s very powerful sermons. One was actually an extended treatise entitled “Everyone an Aristocrat, Everyone a Noble Person.” In that treatise, he makes explicit a theological grounding for democracy. 

He develops his ideas about democracy and the teachings of Jesus with a line from the Scriptures, “A man of royal birth went to a distant country to be appointed king, and afterward he returned.” (Lk 19:12) Eckhart comments this way. “Our Lord teaches us in these words how royal people have been created in their nature, how divine is the state to which they can rise through grace and, in addition, how people are to reach that point. In addition, a large part of the Holy Scripture touches upon these words.”

“A Stunning Teaching from Eckhart: Soul as Compassion.” Video by Matthew Fox.

Thus Eckhart sees Jesus developing the rich theme of the dignity of each human being. He explains that the “inner person” who is “hidden within us” is called in Scripture “a new person, a heavenly person, a young person, a friend, and a royal person.” This is the person Jesus is referring to “when he says, ‘a person of royal birth went to a distant country to be appointed king, and afterward he returned.’”  

To be continued.


Adapted from Matthew Fox, “’Sermon’ Thirty-Six: Everyone an Aristocrat, Everyone a Royal Person,” in Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 510-530.

See Matthew Fox, “Meister Eckhart and Karl Marx: The Mystic as Political Theologian,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets, pp. 165-198.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner image: Jesus preaching to contemporary youngsters. Black and white 1896 reproduction of Uhde’s work, “Christi predigt am See” (Sermon on the lake, or Christ preaching at the sea). Artwork by Fritz von Uhde. Wikimedia Commons



Queries for Contemplation

Have you reflected previously on how the teachings of Jesus lead up to an understanding of and appreciation for democracy?


Recommended Reading

Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart

Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.”  — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.  

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life

In one of his foundational works, Fox engages with some of history’s greatest mystics, philosophers, and prophets in profound and hard-hitting essays on such varied topics as Eco-Spirituality, AIDS, homosexuality, spiritual feminism, environmental revolution, Native American spirituality, Christian mysticism, Art and Spirituality, Art as Meditation, Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism and more.

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward

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7 thoughts on “Jesus and Democracy according to Meister Eckhart”

  1. Thank you, Matthew.

    Some questions:
    To have the nobility, don’t you need a peasantry?
    Was Christ King elected?
    Didn’t Thomas Aquinas say that a benevolent dictatorship is the best form of government?

    1. Let me take a crack at your first question Bill. Here is the first definition of “nobility.” Only the second definition states “of high rank.” Nonetheless, what Eckhart is saying is that we are all born of equal rank. We all were created with the spark of God that urges us to be noble.
      no·bil·i·ty | nōˈbilədē |
      noun (plural nobilities)
      [1] the quality of being noble in character, mind, birth, or rank: a person of nobility and learning.

      If you say that someone is a noble person, you admire and respect them because they are unselfish and morally good. For example: He was an upright and noble man who was always willing to help in any way he could. Synonyms: worthy, generous, upright, honorable

      Isaiah 32:8
      But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble. But the noble deviseth noble things; and in noble things shall he continue. But honorable people act honorably and stand firm for what is honorable.

  2. Democracy does seem to reflect on earth our ongoing evolutionary spiritual journeys of our Divinization, developing and integrating our human and Divine natures, personally and communally with one another as expressed and lived compassionately by many of our past and present saints, mystics, indigenous peoples, and good people around the world in GOD’S SPIRIT of LOVING Diverse WHOLENESS-ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….

  3. In my Congregational/UCC tradition, I learned early that Jesus was a radical who went right to the heart of matters and turned upside down all the usual societal “rules”. His making care for “the least of these” central to honoring his Way leads to the ideals of democracy, which has both rule by the majority and respect for the minority. Democracy was not intended to be a win/lose institution, although it has certainly degenerated into that in the U.S. I think it is most tragic that liberation theology was denied and outlawed for so long in some churches, and that the concept of Jesus as a radical reformer is strongly opposed even now.

  4. In Brazil, public education is secular, to a certain extent. In some schools, they pray with the children at the beginning of classes and at snack time. Even though it is defined in the constitution and in the documents that talk about education, people still insist on preaching their religions in public schools. I am the pedagogical coordinator of a public school and I enforce the law in my unit. I live in a highly religious region, where people are fundamentalists and I fear that this idea of ​​posting the 10 commandments in schools will become fashionable here. In fact, the Brazilian extreme right copies the American one in everything. There are already private, evangelical schools, called schools with principles, where all classes must begin with a biblical verse, which talks about the topic that will be discussed in class. It’s sad, but it exists. We recently freed ourselves from the clutches of a fascist government but they are more than active, trying to return to power. May the Goddess protect us!

  5. I appreciate your reflections on Joe Biden’s age. As a non-American I am more concerned about Trump who is being silent and no one is challenging his lies and behavior. That is scary!

  6. I personally do not see Jeshua as being politically motivated, but rather what I see is how intentionally spiritually motivated he was to get humanity to understand and appreciate the divinity of their true souls, which is seeded and planted within their humanity… to awaken to, tend to and cultivate this reality of Spirit incarnate within all… the souls journey of learning to intuitively, creatively and imaginatively take responsibility and accountability for manifesting this from within one’s sacred relationships with… with one’s Soul/Self, the living Spirit of the Creator, others and the all and the everything of creation… which is rooted in unconditional love, compassion and mercy for all… which leads to respectfully being and living justly.

    Judas and many others in that time, as well as many today weren’t then and are not now, willing or able to understand nor appreciate what Jeshau’s intentional spiritual motivation was all about… which has led unfortunately to a large portion of humanity unconsciously and negatively manifesting much suffering, that impacts the whole of existence.

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